The next generation Redmi smartphones adopts to the latest design trends, packs tested and proven Snapdragon SoC and more importantly stays in the budget-range. The Chinese mobile vendor Xiaomi, at an event in its homeland, unveiled the next generation Redmi smartphones – the Redmi 5 and a bigger, powerful, Redmi 5 Plus.

The new Redmi 5 series will essentially replace the much popular Redmi 4, which is also one of Xiaomi’s best selling smartphone in India. The mobile vendor usually brings its newest smartphones to India in a very short-time gap. So, we could expect an Indian launch of Redmi 5 in early 2017.

Xiaomi Redmi 5

The major highlight of Xiaomi Redmi 5 is it’s 18:9 full-screen display. The front part of the phone is almost covered up by the bright 5.7-inch HD+ 1440 × 720 display. The mobile got a metal uni-body build with rounded edges. The four corners of the phone have reinforced extra thickness, reducing the chance of broken screen when the four corners touchdown.

Under the hood, the Redmi 5 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 chipset paired with either 2GB or 3GB of RAM. For storing your media content, the mobile carries either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage. Further to expand the storage capacity, mobile has the option to add microSD card. The phone runs on Android Nougat based highly customizable MIUI 9 skin out of the box.

For photography, the Redmi 5 is equipped with a 12-megapixel rear camera. It features f/2.2 aperture, PDAF and LED flash support. On the front, for selfie addicts, the mobile carries 5-megapixel camera which has soft LED flash support and intelligent beauty 3.0 mode.

Coming to connectivity, the Redmi 5 has 4G LTE network support that can seamlessly work with every Indian telcos 4G band. It also has 4G VoLTE support for making HD voice and video calls. Other connectivity options include 3G and 2G network support, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2 and IR Blaster. For extra security, the mobile comes with fingerprint scanner placed conveniently at the back of the device. Finally, the mobile is fueled by a 3300mAh battery.

Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus

The bigger Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus is also much powerful in terms of hardware. The mobile has the exact design and build-quality of Redmi 5. But, you get a bigger 5.99-inch full HD+ 2160 × 1080 resolution display that also has the 18:9 custom screen ratio. Under the hood, the device is powered by Xiaom’s most trusted Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset, which is paired with either 3GB or 4GB of RAM. For storage, the mobile carries either 32GB or 64GB of internal memory options. You can further expand the storage using MicroSD card.

Other hardware specifications, including the front camera, back camera and connectivity options remains same as that of Redmi 5. However, you get a bigger 4000mAh battery to fuel the device.

The budget pricing

Now to the important question, how much will Redmi 5 series cost? In China, the Redmi 5 starts at Yuan 799 (approximately Rs 7700) for the 2GB RAM and 16GB storage variant. Whereas, the 3GB RAM and 32GB storage variant of Redmi 5 will retail for Yuan 899 (approximately Rs 8700).